Bridge of Sighs

Bridge of Sighs is a novel by the American writer Richard Russo, published in 2007; the Chinese edition, translated by Lin Yan, was brought out by People's Literature Publishing House in 2013. Set in Thomaston, a declining industrial town in the northeastern United States, it is narrated by Louis Lynch, a man past fifty who runs the grocery store his mother left him and also serves as the town's mayor, tending to the town's daily chores year after year. The memories unfold from his boyhood: a fright caused by a schoolmate's prank leaves him with a spiritual wound that long refuses to heal. Running through the book are his deep friendship with Bobby and the lingering, restrained feelings among Sarah, Bobby, and himself, which also draw in the interwoven marriages and livelihoods of their parents' generation. Over time some leave, some stay, and some return home years later, bringing belated understanding and forgiveness. Told through multiple perspectives and retrospective narration, the novel portrays ordinary people still struggling forward within limited choices, through marriages, father-son relationships, and small-town daily life. The title comes from the famous stone bridge in Venice and also echoes Thomaston's old name, suggesting sighs and looking back at the past. At roughly 490,000 characters, it is a realist novel centered on family and the changes of a place.